Almond Banana Cake

by Celia Sin-Tien Cheng
February 22, 2007

MAI HOUSE
186 Franklin St
(Greenwich & Hudson Sts)
New York, NY 10013
212-431-0606

Yuck, yuck and yuck! I somehow have regressed to being five years old, but I can’t seem to find adjectives to describe how I feel other than single juvenile words like “gross!”

Mai House is a big step back for chef Michael Bao Huynh of Bao 111 fame. The food at Bao 111 and Bao Noodles that I remember was inventive, not fusion. The difference in these two terms being that in all modern cuisine, it takes sense, skill and ingenuity to modify or use ingredients that work together, regardless of their origins. Fusion is a term that people try to avoid because much of the popular fusion cuisine that developed over the past twenty years showed bad judgment in combining flavors that didn’t necessarily work together merely for the sake of getting a reaction. Mai House is the latest addition to Drew Nieporent’s Myriad Group. Based on the success of the Bao restaurants, I would have said that it was a good idea to hire Michael Bao Hyunh to head this “Vietnamese-inspired fusion” restaurant. However, I feel that the food here is taking less direction from its chef and more from a concept that is not working.

The restaurant was relatively empty for a Thursday night. The biggest brouhaha all night was not so much that Mario Batali was there dining with his wife and two friends, but that the wait staff were fumbling all over each other to make sure the party was happy. The rest of the restaurant seemed deadbeat, its empty tables further magnifying the expansive space of the restaurant.

For me, the first sign of trouble was that, upon perusing the menu, nothing spoke to me. From cocktails, appetizers, entrees to sides… nothing looked good. I don’t recall the last time this has happened to me. My friend asked me what jumped out at me and I literally took five more minutes to try to find anything that whet my appetite. Ultimately, my choices were based on eliminating what I didn’t want to eat, as opposed to deciding between mouth-watering options.

We started with the salt and pepper cuttlefish, which initially looked good to me on the menu until I read the accompanying sweet and sour kiwi sauce. Excuse the regression again but “yuck!” After tasting it, I second that “yuck!” I ended up eating the rest of the squid without the sauce but it wasn’t all that spectacular, as the batter was not cooked through so it didn’t have the light crisp that makes great salt and pepper cuttlefish crave-worthy.

The lemongrass lamb skewers were fine. They tasted good on their own and again were pretty disgusting when dipped in the anchovy sauce. For main dishes we enjoyed a black cod special. I wouldn’t choose to come to a Vietnamese restaurant for black cod but it sounded more appetizing than much of the menu so what the hell. Lest I forget, it’s Vietnamese-inspired, not Vietnamese so if we’re going to go fusion, let’s go all the way.

The one dish that I was curious to try was the duck fried rice, with duck confit, smoked duck and duck egg. Now honestly, based on these four ingredients, rice, duck confit, smoked duck and duck egg, this dish has the potential to be fantabulous! It was far from that and less than lackluster. Where were the smoked duck and duck egg? I was hoping to taste the distinctive aromas of salted duck egg and the juicy flavors of smoked duck. But what arrived was mushy fried rice with overcooked duck meat. I had to drown the rice in hot sauce (even the hot sauce was fusiony gross with sweet overtones) and picked out the duck meat because it was too hard to chew.

The craving listed for this piece is a dessert, almond banana cake, which came with black sesame ice cream and coconut tapioca pearls. It was the lesser evil of the meal but by no means worth talking about.

Sigh! It pains me to have to share this experience in such a negative way but I have to wonder what went wrong? My friend and I just happened to be discussing The Slanted Door (Charles Phan’s knockout Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco) over dinner, which begs the question: Why don’t we have anything remotely close to that caliber of Vietnamese cuisine in New York City? But perhaps a better question is, “Vietnamese-inspired fusion cuisine in New York City and it’s 2007?” You’ve got to be kidding me!

Also in Tribeca, Vietnamese